


One Way Out

by Toaverse



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: Acid, Angst, Barley is 12 while Gore is 17, Barley needs a hug, Blood, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Child Death, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Force-Feeding, Friendship, Gen, Gore also needs a hug, Implied Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Murder, Not Happy, Not so happy ending, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:15:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25491484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toaverse/pseuds/Toaverse
Summary: Gore had seen those hunger games where some tributes work together and form a bond with a creature other then theirs.But she had never thought of the friendship the tributes might form, or the pain that comes with it when one of them is killed or declared dead by a canon shot.But she had never imagined such a scenario happening to her.And look at her now...(An entirely different Onward/Hunger Games AU where Barley was picked at the age of 12)
Relationships: Barley Lightfoot & Gore (Onward)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 4





	One Way Out

**Author's Note:**

> Boy oh boy is this a heavy one :/
> 
> Despite the tags, I’m going to put a list of warnings over here.
> 
> ‼️Warnings!‼️:  
> -references of suicide.  
> -(failed) attempted suicide.  
> -murder done by a child.  
> -severe injuries such as a missing eye.  
> -blood, gore and Violence.  
> -implied (yet failed) sexual assault.  
> -child murder.
> 
> Yeah, I think that’s it.
> 
> Also, Officer Gore doesn’t have a canon first name, so I went with Jennea (also kind of a reference to a scrapped character from the film who’s called Jenny, so yeah).
> 
> Enjoy!

The arena.

The place where 21 of the 22 tributes meet the end of their short lives. The place where nobody even wants to go, otherwise being forced by the capital to kill, that, or just simply commit suicide.

Jennea Gore is definitely not choosing the latter.

She looks up at the sky that’s hidden behind high tree branches. She really didn’t like having to kill other creatures, except mermaids and trolls, but she isn’t someone who would take the easy way out.

Besides, her parents begged her to return home alive, and that she shouldn’t trust anyone and all that.

Gore would’ve actually trusted the male tribute of her own district, but he was already the first to die, not to mention that that coward took the easy way out...

Despite her opinions on suicide as a whole, Gore really couldn’t blame the fallen tribute in any way when it’s about the hunger games of all things. She’d rather die on her own terms as well, and spare her family from witnessing her brutal death by some other tribute.

But of cours, Jennea Gore isn’t someone from the easy options.

Speaking of other tributes...

The faun looks down at her left from her tree branch which she has been sitting on for hours, and sees the career pack, a female cyclops and both the minotaurs from district 7, sleeping near their camp fire right under Gore’s nose so that she can’t escape them.

God, did she wanna spit on them right now, but she doesn’t wanna take the risk of waking them up.

A feeling that someone is looking at her suddenly appears in her gut. Listening to it, Gore looks up at the tree across from hers, and she appears to be right.

A young elf boy, probably not older then 12 or 13, is looking at her, while hiding a bit behind the log of the tree. His eyes don’t look threatening in the slightest, but rather with wonder and admiration.

Unfortunately, Gore can only read the child’s expression for a few seconds before he hides himself behind the tree.

‘Weird kid.’ She thought, before looking up at the sky again while letting her guard up. That kid might try something, but Gore knows that she, or even the careers, can easily kill him if he even thinks about it.

Her further thoughts are cut off by the sound of fire burning, immediately being followed by three creatures screaming in agony.

Gore looks down at her left from the tree again, and sees the female minotaur from district 7 on the ground, burning to death as she screams her lungs out. The female cyclops and the male tribute from district 7 somehow have enough strength to stand up and run away, trying to put the fire out while screaming out of pain. 

“Huh, they had it coming.” The 17 year old faun says, before climbing down on the ground, making sure that the fire is calming down a bit.

A canon shot went off. Gore knows it’s for the district 7 female that’s laying dead and burned in front of her, so the faun doesn’t have to look at her picture showing up in the air.

‘Who the heck did this?’ Gore can’t help but think as she looks at the dead body.

Her thoughts are quickly cut off by hearing someone climbing out of so tree, and it clearly isn’t that far away. The faun turns het gaze to the direction of the sound, and notices that it’s the tree that was right across from her. Taking note of that detail, Gore remembers only one person who was in there.

‘That kid.’ She thought, continuing staring at the bottom of the tree.

Probably feeling watched, the elf boy carefully glances at the faun, again with those not-threatening eyes.

If she just had a weapon of some sort, she would’ve easily killed him right then and there...

Then Gore notices something small and thin in the boy’s hand, something that looks like a...match?!

“Is that a match in your hand?” The faun asks, a little confused as to how he had got it.

The elf boy slowly comes out of hiding, stepping away from the tree so that he can be seen. He looks a bit afraid, yet having the same curiosity in his eyes.

“Yes?” He answers, showing Gore the match in his hand.

The faun looks at it with a confused expression, before another thought and question interrupts it.

“Did you set those three...on fire?” Gore asks with a bit of an tremble in her voice.

The elf boy darts his eyes at some other direction, before looking back at her. He nods as his answer, feeling a bit ashamed.

“I’ve heard that they’re trained, so why not get rid of the strongest first?” The elf says, his expression looking a bit prouder.

“Well...” Gore starts, turning her gaze to the dead body of one of the careers. “At least you got one of them killed.”

“And, well, I thought you needed a bit of help to get those three away.” The elf boy continues. “You look nicer then them though.”

The faun’s expression turns into a confused one, soon turning into a “what are you thinking?’ one.

“Kid...” Gore starts, turning her gaze back to the boy. “...that’s not how this game works...” Unfortunately, she thought the same when she was 12 or something along that age, but her own words are the hard and cold truth of the hunger games.

“But the other creatures work together, right?” The young elf says, most likely taking the careers as an example. “So why can’t we?”

Gore knows right there that the kid is trying to form an aliance with her. Sure, the idea isn’t that bad, and the kid doesn’t look threatening and murderous, but what are the chances that he won’t be killed the second an career tribute appears?

“Fine.” Gore says, agreeing to the 12 year old’s idea. “As long if we aren’t gonna be the last ones left, we will work together.” The condition is more of her not wanting to kill a 12 year old, let alone her own possible friend. “Now, lets get out of here before the Capital takes the body away.” Both tributes take one last disgusted look at the body before they walk away.

“So, what do we do now...eh?” The young elf asks, hinting that he doesn’t know his companion’s name yet.

“Jennea.” The faun answers. “Or just Jenny for short.”

“Nice name!” The 12 year old answers. “I’m Barley.”

“Well, Barley.” Gore says, turning her gaze to the boy. “Let’s try and get some food, shall we?”

Barley can’t help but smile as he and his new companion are looking for the things they need.

•+•

Before both of them knew it, the darkness of the night arrived.

Unfortunately, they only found a few not-poisonous berries and river water to drink before the sky turned dark.

They had managed to hide in a gave-hole that’s full with leaves, but Barley doesn’t really mind it.

“You eat leaves?” Gore asks her younger companion, who has already eaten his small portion of berries.

“They aren’t really that bad.” Barley answers before swallowing a small peace of leaf that he was chewing. “Wanna try it?”

Gore looks at the leaves on the ground with an disgusted look, not really being in the mood to try it. Besides, she still has two berries left.

“Maybe later.” She answers, having turned away her gaze to Barley.

The younger creature smiles at the older, saying without words that it’s okey.

A moment of silence falls, before Barley asks another question.

“How did you got chosen for the hunger games?” He asks. “Like, did they select you, or did they randomly pick your name out of a bowl?”

Gore looks a bit confused at the boy, but decides to answer his question anyways.

“Unfortunately, they randomly picked my name out of a bowl.” The faun answers, remembering the moment like it was yesterday. She remembers how her name was being called out for everyone to hear, she remembers the looks of the other fauns her age as they made room for her to go to the stage, she remembers the fear she felt while standing on that stage next to that escort as everyone of her districts looked at her with pity. Gore quickly pushes that memory in the back of her mind, not wanting to be reminded of it again. “What about you?”

“Also the latter.” Barley answers like it’s normal.

This got Gore thinking. ‘By the age of 12, your name is only 1 time in the bowl.’ She recounts. ‘Either this kid is really unlucky, or-‘

“Barley?” The 17 year old asks, getting the boy’s attention. “Did you had your name in more then once?”

“Yup, if I’m correct.” Barley answers. “The peacekeepers gave us extra food, but they said that my name is going in the bowl more times. So I agreed, even though mom didn’t like it.”

For once, Gore doesn’t know what to say. There’s far more going on in this boy’s life, she’s sure of it, but she doesn’t wanna bother him about it. Besides, they’re just alias. One or both of them are going to die anyways.

“Alright, you’ll sleep for a bit while I’m on watch.” Gore explains, dropping the previous conversation entirely.

“Okey, but don’t you have to sleep at some point?” Barley asks, clearly caring about her wellbeing.

“I’ll be fine.” She simply answers.

“Then will you eat leaves to help you stay awake?”

The faun can’t help but chuckle a little. “Yes, yes, I will.” She responds in a non-serious and joking tone. It’s enough for Barley to listen to her.

“Okey, goodnight!” He says lastly before shifting himself into a more comfortable position to sleep, using his jacket as a blanket.

Gore takes one last look at her companion before turning her gaze towards the leaves on the ground. She picks one of them up, and stares at it for a moment.

‘Well, it never hurts to try...’ she thought, before putting the leaf in her mouth, only to spit it out moments later. ‘Good wizard gods! That tasted horrible!’

The only way that Gore can possibly imagine that Barley eat leaves in the first place is that he has done it before they even met, which is the most likely option. Well, at least for her.

The faun looks at the dark night sky, looking at the two moons as she plans the next day in her mind.

•+•

The next 2 days where quite calm.

The alliance of two didn’t saw any tributes in those days, but they did here one canon shot.

Hunting for food got a bit better, as the two had found the careers’ food stash near a different cave. The two only grabbed small portions of it so that the careers wouldn’t notice it, but the risk is still there.

Unlike the careers, Gore and Barley didn’t stay in the same cave for long, but rather moved around a lot and sleep somewhere else each night so that the other tributes can’t find them easily.

It’s a good strategy for them, but Gore kept her suspicion up on any “arena events” or anything else the Capital is planning.

So far, nothing really happend in those 2 days. That, until...

“Seen other tributes yet?” Gore asks her younger companion.

“Luckily, no.” Barley answers. “It seems pretty empty here.”

“If only someone has one match left so that we can lure them to us.” The faun suggests, obviously hinting at Barley.

“Oh, I have one!” The elf calls out, pulling his last match out of his coat pocket. But when he holds up the match in the air, a drop of some type of liquid falls out of the sky and lands on it, melting it instantly.

Feeling a bit of the intense heat on his fingers, Barley instantly throws the match away, leaving it melting on the ground.

Gore saw that happening, and looks around her for other things melting or burning away, and she’s right.

More drops fall out of the sky. Some landing on branches and trees, which leaves holes in them. One even lands on Gore’s hand. She hisses as she feels the intense pain of one drop. Then it clicks...

‘Acid rain...’

These two words stuck in her mind for what feels like forever, but it was only a moment. Gore’s thoughts are cut off by the sound of it raining harder, setting the realization in that they had to get out of here.

“Barley, acid rain is pouring down! We have to get out of here!” The faun yells out of panic, wanting the elf to understand crystal clear what’s going on right now. Yet, she doesn’t give Barley the time to proces it, as she grabs him firmly by the arm and pulls him with her as she runs.

The young elf doesn’t really understand what’s happening right now, but he lets his older companion drag him with her out of this dangerous situation.

But Gore’s grip quickly slips, not knowing that for a moment. But the moment is just enough for Barley to lose his balance and to fall with the left side of his face in a small puddle of acid...

It hurts, it really hurts.

Barley can only feel the burning and agonizing pain eating up his skin as he sees the vision in his left eye fading, leaving him to only see through his right eye. And it feels like it’s going on forever...

But it only lasts 2 seconds.

‘Shit!’ Gore mentally swears upon seeing her companion like this.

Without even thinking, she puts her backpack off of her and grabs the 12 year old once again, pulling him off of the floor and out of the acid. She firmly holds Barley against her chest with one arm while holding her backpack above them with the other, and runs all the while.

Adrenalin shoots through her as Gore sprints to anywhere where they can hide. Any cave, any tree, any branch. Just any sort of shelter that she can spot.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Gore spots a cave near them. She doesn’t hesitate twice before running in its direction, and basically throwing herself along with Barley in there.

As she’s catching her breath, Gore looks back outside, seeing that it rains harder with acid. She considers them lucky that they just now found shelter.

A wimper coming from her younger companion is what snaps the faun out of her trance. She looks down to see the elf still clinging to her, maybe to try and lessen the pain. More wimpers and sniffs follow, making it obvious that Barley is trying to hold back how upset he is right now.

Despite having some small holes in her arms and one in her hand, she can’t imagine the pain the 12 year old felt when outside.

“Are you okey?” Gore knows that she shouldn’t ask this, that Barley isn’t okey right now, but she can’t help it.

She pushed him away a little, wanting to see how bad his wounds are.

Gore can feel herself jump out of her skin for a second.

Obviously, the left side of Barley’s face is burned, but some chucks of his flesh where or are straight up gone or still melting off. Some of his hair on the same side also appears to be melted off. And Barley’s eyeball is either in that pool of acid, or all melted in his eye socket, because Gore can’t be able to see that thing anywhere.

‘This is my fault...’ the faun can only think, still seeing the horrific and heartbreaking sight before her. ‘If I just had’t lost my grip...’

Not being able to think of anything better, Gore took off her jacket and covers the elf’s wounded face, trying to sooth the pain for him as best as she can.

Barley responds to this by snuggling against her, having covered his wounds with her jacket. It doesn’t really help much, but the 12 year old appreciates it that his companion at least tried.

It doesn’t really take long for him to fall asleep.

Gore looks at the kid for a moment, before her own back pack catches her attention. She can see many holes caused by the acid rain through it, which is gonna be a little problem if she ever needs to carry something in it.

Speaking of holes...

The faun looks at her long sleeves, seeing a few holes in them as well. She bets those are probably made before that fiasco with Barley and that small pool of acid.

She rolls them up, checking if she has any other flesh wounds. Gore sees that some drops went through her flesh, but it isn’t that severe.

Unlike Barley, she was lucky...

‘Fuck the Capital...’ Gore can’t help but think. But hey, they’re the ones who came up with this game, and forcing literal children to fight to the death in an arena.

Sometimes children who are just 12...

The 17 year old can’t help but look at her younger companion again, sleeping all save and sound and quiet. A little too quiet. Barley’s breathing is so shallow that she can’t even hear it. ‘Huh, if only a-‘

A canon shot went off.

Jennea stiffens, automatically assuming that it’s for the person who’s right next to her.

‘Is he...dead?’ She mentally asks herself, not taking her gaze off of the “sleeping” 12 year old. ‘What if some acid in his eye socket traveled to his brain and killed him? What if he got an infection without knowing and it did it’s work?’

With every possible scenario swirling in her head, Gore grows more panicked without even getting as to why.

“Barley?” She asks, shaking him a little bit. “Do you hear me?” He doesn’t respond, growing the faun’s panic. She quickly gets impatient mixed with fear and panic, getting straight to the point. “Barley!” She yells, shaking him a little harder.

It jolts him awake, grabbing Gore’s arm out of instinct.

“Wha-? W-what’s wrong...?” Barley asks, half awake.

Jennea lets out a sigh of relief. ‘It was someone else.’ She realizes, feeling like a invisible weight is being lift off of her shoulders.

“Sorry.” She apologized, seeing that the young elf doesn’t understand why she woke him up all stressed. “I thought that-“ she begins, only to back out, not wanting to scare him more then he probably already is. “N-nevermind.”

Barley lets it slide, thinking that his companion doesn’t wanna talk about it.

The faun stays silent, thinking about what had just happened. ‘Why do I even care that much about him?’ She asks herself in her head. ‘One or both of us are going to die anyways! It’s useless!’ She mentally screams at herself. ‘Maybe I should’ve left him outsi-‘ but Gore can’t finish her thought, wanting to slap herself so badly for even thinking of letting her companion die like that.

“What happens when we die here?” Barley suddenly asks, snapping Gore out of her thoughts once again.

‘Oh boy, what a question...’ Gore thought. “Well, some fau- creatures say that we go to some heaven where we rest.” She answers. “Some say that we fly around as invisible ghosts. Some say our souls will continue in a new life.” She explains further. “Why do you ask?”

“Maybe one of them happend to dad...” Barley answers in a sad tone.

At first, Gore doesn’t understand why he’d tell her this, but then it clicked in her head. How he said that the peacekeepers gave him tessera in exchange for having your name in the bowl more times, and that he said his mother didn’t like that her son even did it.

Boy, she should’ve known...

“I’m sure your dad would be proud of you for taking care of your family.” The faun says, not knowing what else to say as she lays a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Barley doesn’t answer, but rather smiled, appreciating the reassuring words of his companion.

It stays silent for a few moments, until the young elf asks something else.

“What if we are the last ones left?”

Gore stays silent, remembering exactly what she had said when she and Barley became an aliance. One of them is going to have to die if that’s gonna be the case, but who? She’s definitely not going to kill him right there and then, that would be a big “fuck you”, as well as guilt growing in her if she actually did it. But Gore will never ever take her own life just for someone else to win, especially when her parents strictly told her that she must win at all costs.

“Then we will figure something out.” Jennea says in a kinda stern tone, looking away from the elf, not wanting to think about that scenario.

“Okey...” Barley says, getting that his companion doesn’t wanna think about it right now. He then looks at the ground with his still seeing eye, catching some leaves lying there. He picks one up and offers it to the faun. “Do you want a leaf?” He asks, obviously wanting to make her feel better.

Jennea looks back at him, smiling a bit at seeing him trying to make her feel just a bit better. “Sure.”

She takes the leaf, while Barley quickly falls asleep again. But this time, she keeps a close eye on his pulse, just in case another canon shot is gonna go off.

•+•

The acid rain only lasted for an hour, but still seeing puddles of acid on the ground, Gore and Barley waited for them to go away of some sort. Unfortunately, when the puddles slowly went away, the night came once again.

So the first thing the aliance of two do when daylight shined is to look for proper food and water.

Gore carefully walks through the woods, her jacket still covering half of Barley’s face who’s holding her arm firmly. Jennea doesn’t mind it at all. She was already planning to keep the 12 year old near her and to not lose him out of her sight, especially when the events of yesterday are still printed in both minds...

Unfortunately, sometimes you have to do things with both hands.

After hours of searching, they find some apples on a rock in the middle of a lake, but to get there you have to cross the river by climbing a robe that’s hanging on both sides a meter above the river. 

Gore looks at the food on the rock, and then above her, seeing a apple tree a few meters above.

Yup, this isn’t a trap.

“Okey, I want you to listen to me very carefully, okey?” Gore says, getting down to Barley’s level and putting both her hands on his shoulders, wanting him to hear this crystal clear. “I’m going over there to pick up those apples on that rock so that we have at least something to eat.” She explains, hearing her stomach rumbling at that exact moment. “Keep your eyes at me and only me so that I can see you, and don’t you even dare walk somewhere else!” The last sentence might have had a bit of a harsher and stricter tone, but Gore doesn’t think anything of it. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Jen.” Barley says, also understanding why the faun has a bit of a stern tone. If anything, he also doesn’t want such a shitshow happening again like yesterday.

“Good.” She says, before letting go of her younger companion for the first time in hours and walking to the beginning of the robe as well as the lake.

Gore grabs the tensioned robe with both hands, and gets off of the ground and above the water, carefully but quickly grabbing a piece of robe with each hand one by one to get further, all the while holding her legs up so that they don’t get wet.

And finally, she reaches her destination.

When the faun is close enough to let go of the robe and get on the rock, she quickly picks the apples up and puts them into her backpack that’s still full with holes.

“I got them!” Gore calls out to Barley, who gives her two thumbs up.

Jennea makes her way back the exact same like the way there, while hoping that the food doesn’t fall out through one of the holes in her backpack.

She lets go of the robe again, landing on the ground with both feet. But when Gore only just takes one step towards the small elf, something heavy lands behind her with full force.

The faun falls to the ground on her stomach, quickly noticing her wrists are being held down above her head. That’s when she knows that someone is holding her down against the ground.

“Hey there, hottie.” A male voice greets the faun seductively. Gore really got the urge to throw up at hearing his tone alone. “Missed us?”

‘Us?’ Jennea mentally asks, but it then clicks in her head seconds later. 

‘Those assholes are back...’

Flashbacks of those three careers sleeping near the tree she was in starts to replay in her mind, as well as the ones where they where set on fire by a curtain someone.

She looks forward at Barley, who looks like he really doesn’t know what to do right now. Well, the faun definitely has something for him.

“Run!” Gore yells at her younger companion, desperately hoping that he just does what she says. But the elf only back out a little. “I said run!”

But right when Barley turns around to get out of here, Gore sees a female cyclops jump out of the bushes and launches at him. The cyclops succeeds, and holds the elf’s head firmly against the ground. Then, as quickly as she came out of the bushes, the one eyed giant appears to have a knife in her other hand, and stabs it in the 12 year old’s remaining seeing eye, leaving him blind as well as in pain.

And of cours, Barley screams and cries out of agony, only being able to feel the knife that’s still in his right eye, as well as the blood that’s streaming down his face.

Jennea really doesn’t want to admit it, but all of it just breaks her heart.

The cyclops then looks at her with a smug smirk, as she roughly pulls the knife out of the young elf, along with his eye.

Anger rises in the faun as she’s forced to witness the brutal assault. She starts to struggle against her restrainer, who only holds her more firmly. It also doesn’t really help that Gore can feel his erection against her “behind”.

“Leave him alone...” the faun manages to say, but it doesn’t sound threatening in the slightest.

“Oh, and why, may I ask?” The cyclops says mockingly, removing the eyeball from the knife. “He killed our dearest friend, isn’t that right?” She asks the 12 year old elf, who she had yanked up and holding the knife against his throat.

Barley can only nod, listening what the cyclops just said. “Y-yes?” He chokingly answers.

“See? Unlike you, he’s actually willing to admit!” The one eyed giant cheers, directing her tone more to Gore. “Well, that’s true honesty right there.”

“Please...” the faun begs. “He’s just a child-“

“And so are we.” The cyclops says bluntly, “So, why are we suppose to care again?”

Having her thoughts all over the place, as well as a racing heartbeat, Gore looks straight at her younger companion with an apologizing look, only to be reminded that he can’t see anything anymore, but she can still see his fear of what’s going to happen.

“Say bye bye.” The cyclops says mockingly, setting the blade so that she can slit the 12 year olds throat, and the cyclops does exactly that.

But very...very slow...

Being forced to see it all happen, Gore feels like it lasted for an eternity, tears burning in her eyes as she hears Barley’s wimpers and chokes, feeling her heart break all over again.

But that suddenly ends. The cyclops reaches the end of the boy’s throat and lets her grip on him go. Gore can see through her tears that he falls to the ground, presumably lifeless and dead.

Tears, as well as unwanted sniffs, starts coming from the faun as she can’t take her gaze off of Barley’s dead body, refusing to believe that he’s anything but dead.

But the canon shot that follows says otherwise.

The cyclops looks at her work for a moment, before picking up the elf’s eyeball. “You said you wanted food, right?” She asks the faun, coming closer to her.

Gore only glares at the one eyed giant, not saying a word.

“Well, here you have it.” The cyclops says before shoving the eyeball right into Gore’s mouth.

The faun struggles, desperately wanting to spit it out, but both the minotaur and the cyclops won’t let her.

“Tsk tsk, how ungreatfull.” The one eyed giantess says mockingly. “Now, chew a few times, will you?”

Not having another choice, Gore obeys, crushing the round body part with her teeth. Tears of shame and humiliation starts to burn in her eyes as she does it again, and again, feeling the taste of the eyeball with each chew.

“Now, swallow.” The cyclops demands, leaving no room for questions.

Wanting to get out of this situation as fast as possible, Jennea does as she’s told, swallowing the eyeball without tasting it further more.

“Huh, she actually did it.” The cyclops says to her ally. “Well Eric, she’s all yours now.” She suddenly says, standing up. “I’ll be a few kilometers away, so that I can’t hear you two getting it on.” She says lastly, before walking off, not noticing that she accidentally drops her knife on the ground almost out of Gore’s reach.

“Well babe, looks like it’s just you and me~” the Minotaur says when the one eyed giant is out of sight. He then let go of one of Gore’s wrists and uses that hand to try and shove her pants down, making his intentions crystal clear.

Out of instinct, Jennea grabs the knife off of the ground and turns around to look at the male Minotaur, and can’t stab the weapon through his head soon enough.

Feeling that his life is ending and becoming weaker, Gore quickly gets away from the male creature, panting heavily as his canon shot went off.

And the faun can’t get to Barley’s body soon enough.

She told herself that she should not be shocked by his appearance, but when she sees him, she is...

Barley’s burn wounds are still crystal clear to see, as well as his left eye being missing, but his right eye socket and throat leaks of thick red blood, and it’s all over him.

Gore is horrified, she really is...

She lets out a sob, and then another, and another, until she’s straight up crying. The faun can’t stop herself anymore, and just lets it all out.

Jennea knows that this was destined to happen, that one of them was suppose to die first.

But not this brutal...

Not this cruel...

Not like this...

She pulls herself together, breathing in and out to calm herself down.

‘I can’t leave him like this...’ Gore thought, grabbing her jacket off of the ground to get to work.

She cleans up the still fresh blood in the elf’s eye socket and throat with her jacket, having no use for that piece of clothing anymore. Unfortunately, the dried up blood in Barley’s clothing can’t be cleaned up, so she has to let it be.

Lastly, she picks out a flower, and places it in the elf’s hands, representing his innocence.

“I’m sure your dad would be proud of you...” she says, remembering what Barley had told her. “Say hello for me, okey?”

Those where her last words, taking one look at her previous companion before Jennea walks away to wherever she’s going, the fresh memories of the events still in her mind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has just won the respect of the entirety of district 6, who all have been watching the whole journey of the two companions. And after the way their youngest tribute had been murdered, they now all hope that it’s his trusted companion and friend who’s gonna win this year’s hunger games.

•+•

Hours upon hours passed, and the events of this day slowly starts to sink in the faun’s mind.

Gore’s sitting in a cave again, having her knees to her chest as her mind can’t think of anything other then the last few days, more specifically those days involving Barley.

She had seen those hunger games where some tributes work together and form a bond with a creature other then theirs. She always hoped or thought that they should just kill them, just to get it over with and to have a tribute less to worry about. But Jennea had never thought of the friendship the tributes might form, or the pain that comes with it when one of them is killed or declared dead by a canon shot.

Then, she’d always think that they should just get it over with, and move on.

But she had never imagined such a scenario happening to her. 

And look at her now...

The only two known tributes who survived the hunger games who formed a friendship with a creature from another district are Colt Bronco and Elayne Specter.

Gore would definitely be labeled as one of them if she survives the games.

But she doubts that...

She holds the knife that lays next to her on the ground, and slowly picks it up to look at it.

Jennea has always said that she’s never going to commit suicide, that it’s selfish and weak.

But right now, she has the urge to...

Remembering that she left Barley alone before he got brutally killed, and that she was forced to eat one of his eyeballs for the entirety of Yore to see...

It makes the faun so ashamed of herself. So much so, that she doesn’t want to face her own district anymore, let alone her own parents.

Jennea knows that she’ll get heavy PTSD because of this, which her parents probably won’t understand. Heck, they might look down on her, having seen the footage in which their daughter humiliates herself, probably even lying that she isn’t theirs...

But Jennea only knows one way out...

She brings the sharp side of the knife to her wrists, ready to cut it through. The pressure between the blade and her wrist becomes tighter,her grip becomes firmer...

Then a canon shot went off.

Jennea doesn’t let it stop her, and keeps her attention on her wrist and the knife.

Then an announcement is being made through the speaker.

“The winner of the 42th hunger games is Jennea Gore from district 2!” Comes out of the speaker.

The faun can hear her heart beating in her ears as she hears the announcement. 

She drops her knife, feeling defeated that she has to live with these awful memories for the rest of her life, as she hides her face behind her crossed arms and knees.


End file.
